Catherine Parr

Catherine Parr (1512-7 September 1548) was Queen consort of England from 12 July 1543 to 28 January 1547 as the sixth and last wife of King Henry VIII. Catherine Parr was known as the one of his six wives who "survived", as she was neither divorced nor beheaded. She remarried to Thomas Seymour after the King's death, and she died in 1548 from complications from childbirth.

Early life
Catherine Parr was born in Blackfriars, London, England in 1512, the daughter of a substantial northern family descended from King Edward III of England. Her mother was a close friend and attendant of Queen Catherine of Aragon, for whom she was named. Her first marriage was short-lived, as her husband died young; she later married John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer, who was twice Parr's age, and twice-widowed. She was strongly opposed to the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion of 1536, especially after her husband was supposedly forced to become a negotiator for the rebels in London, and after she and her children were held captive by the Catholic peasants. Her husband's reputation was tarnished for the rest of his life as the result of the uprising, and Catherine nursed her husband until his death in 1543.

On 16 February 1543, Parr came to court to serve in Princess Mary of England's household. It was at court that she caught the attention of King Henry VIII, and her romance with Thomas Seymour was ended when a jealous King Henry sent Seymour to become the permanent ambasador to the Habsburg Netherlands in Brussels.

Queen of England
Catherine married Henry VIII on 12 July 1543 at Hampton Court Palace. She promised Henry that she was determined to be a loving stepmother to Henry's children; she had been friends with Mary for years, but she wanted to invite Prince Edward and Princess Elizabeth to court more often in order to reconcile the King with them. Henry agreed, and he also agreed to consider giving Elizabeth permanent lodgings at court. From July to September 1544, King Henry was on campaign in France during the Italian War of 1542-46, and Catherine was named regent. She handled provision, finances, and musters for Henry's French campaign, signed five royal proclamations, and kept watch over the unstable situation in Scotland. In 1546, Bishop Stephen Gardener and Lord Wriothesley tried to turn the king against her due to her secret Protestant views; she appointed the former bishop and prominent reformer Hugh Latimer as her chaplain. Catherine reconciled with the king after vowing that she had only argued about religion with him to take his mind off the suffering caused by his ulcerous leg.

Final years
After King Henry's death, Henry gave her a generous pension and ordered for her to be given the respect of a Queen of England. She remarried to her old love, Thomas Seymour, after his return from Brussels, and she became pregnant in 1548. She died eight days after giving birth to her daughter Mary, who would herself die in 1550.